Method

Firstly, prepare your vegetables. You need 1-1.25kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes. If the tomatoes are on their vines, pull them off. The green stalky bits should come off at the same time, but if they don't, just pull or twist them off afterwards. Throw the vines and green bits away and wash the tomatoes. Now cut each tomato into quarters and slice off any hard cores (they don't soften during cooking and you'd get hard bits in the soup at the end). Peel 1 medium onion and 1 small carrot and chop them into small pieces. Chop 1 celery stick roughly the same size.

Spoon 2 tbsp olive oil into a large heavy-based pan and heat it over a low heat. Hold your hand over the pan until you can feel the heat rising from the oil, then tip in the onion, carrot and celery and mix them together with a wooden spoon. Still with the heat low, cook the vegetables until they're soft and faintly coloured. This should take about 10 minutes and you should stir them two or three times so they cook evenly and don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Holding the tube over the pan, squirt in about 2 tsp of tomato purée, then stir it around so it turns the vegetables red. Shoot the tomatoes in off the chopping board, sprinkle in a good pinch of sugar and grind in a little black pepper. Tear 2 bay leaves into a few pieces and throw them into the pan. Stir to mix everything together, put the lid on the pan and let the tomatoes stew over a low heat for 10 minutes until they shrink down in the pan and their juices flow nicely. From time to time, give the pan a good shake – this will keep everything well mixed.

Slowly pour in the 1.2 litres/ 2 pints of hot stock (made with boiling water and 4 rounded tsp bouillon powder or 2 stock cubes), stirring at the same time to mix it with the vegetables. Turn up the heat as high as it will go and wait until everything is bubbling, then turn the heat down to low again and put the lid back on the pan. Cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring a couple of times. At the end of cooking the tomatoes will have broken down and be very slushy looking.

Remove the pan from the heat, take the lid off and stand back for a few seconds or so while the steam escapes, then fish out the pieces of bay leaf and throw them away. Ladle the soup into your blender until it’s about three-quarters full, fit the lid on tightly and turn the machine on full. Blitz until the soup’s smooth (stop the machine and lift the lid to check after about 30 seconds), then pour the puréed soup into a large bowl. Repeat with the soup that’s left in the pan. (The soup may now be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost before reheating.)

Pour the puréed soup back into the pan and reheat it over a medium heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until you can see bubbles breaking gently on the surface. Taste a spoonful and add a pinch or two of salt if you think the soup needs it, plus more pepper and sugar if you like. If the colour’s not a deep enough red for you, plop in another teaspoon of tomato purée and stir until it dissolves. Ladle into bowls and serve. Or sieve and serve chilled with some cream swirled in. For other serving suggestions, see opposite.

Recipe Tip

Choosing the best tomatoes

The best British tomatoes for making soup are Elegance, a deep-red classic tomato (often sold on the vine) with a thin skin and sweet, juicy flesh. Aranca are good on-the-vine cocktail tomatoes with a superb flavour and aroma, but if you prefer the larger beefsteak variety, go for Jack Hawkins. Plum tomatoes to watch out for include Santa, Jester, Mona Lisa and Baby Sweetheart.

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Comments, questions and tips

We absolutly love this recipe. It made 2 litres, so enough for 8 people. If you have a hand held blender that can stand the heat, take it to the pan, it's much easier than all that ladling. Make sure the stock is not too salty as you can't take it out! We added a little mild chilli and a little well-crushed garlic to the second batch, which pleased those who like strong flavours. It tastes even nicer the next day.

fayemarissa

8th Dec, 2016

5.05

Super tasty

BestMama

21st Sep, 2016

3.8

Is the author of this lovely recipe paid by the word?? Great soup but I really want to just type the instructions out again.
Please keep it SIMPLE. We don't need to be told to "throw away stalks"and to "stand back for a few seconds while the steam escapes" surely!
Maybe I'm humourless but I would love this to be concise, clear and with less flowery childish language. This language would never end up in a book (one hopes!).

holoro716

12th Aug, 2017

While the instructions are pretty obvious for most cooks, they can be helpful for beginners who want to make a simple dish. I'm sure it's not that hard to ignore the over-detailing.

Lynta

4th Aug, 2017

I am reviewing the soup which is excellent and I too have no problem with the way the recipe is written.

rmcl

21st Sep, 2016

5.05

lovely soup, finished in slow cooker, added some red lentils towards the end which made a nice slightly thicker consistency when blended. Didn't add the sugar and is wasn't missed. Even the kids loved it!

samskipp

14th Sep, 2016

5.05

This is my go to tomato soup recipe, especially around now when we have more tomatoes in the garden then we know what to do with! It really is much much better made with fresh, seasonal and ripe tomatoes - the watery white ones you get in the supermarket just don't make tasty soup.
I've experimented with throwing in a few sun dried tomatoes with the veg, but it doesn't really need it. I only ever use 1l of stock though as that is more than enough!

Blakcountrykiwi

10th Mar, 2017

5.05

I agree - 1 litre, and it still makes enough for 8.

ecollins

12th Sep, 2016

3.8

Nice recipe. Easy enough to make and tasty. We did peel the tomatoes and also used about 2/3 of the stock suggested. Total amount would have been too much. Did not like the way the method was written though! Even my young daughter couldn't understand why the descriptive piece about pulling stalks off was needed.

ldonne1

9th Jul, 2016

Great soup. I found the recipe fine however had read about it being too watery and having to add extra ingredients. Instead, i allowed it to reduce down by about a third (took about 1 hour on simmer) and the flavour was great and concentrated. I also added 4 garlic gloves to mine. Still makes 6 servings of 320ml each. Enjoy!!

Pages

Thanks for your suggestion. We don't have plans to do this at the moment but new features are always being added so we'll keep this one in mind.

Sarahb888

22nd Dec, 2015

Do you need to take the seeds out of the tomatoes?

goodfoodteam

23rd Dec, 2015

No you do not need to take them out, they will add more flavour to the soup.

buzimonkey

26th Nov, 2015

I am new at this home made soup thing, how many tomatoes is 1-1¼kg/2lb 4oz-2lb 12oz ripe tomatoes? Is it 1-1 1/4Kg or 2lb or 4oz or 12oz? The way it's written out is very confusing for a newbie like me.

goodfoodteam

10th Dec, 2015

Yes, it does seem a bit confusing - it is basically offering you the option to cook with 1 kilo of tomatoes (2lb 4oz) or 1.4 kilos (2lb 12oz). Just use 1 kilo with an extra dash of tomato puree at the end if you want a stronger taste.

pgib8

16th Jan, 2015

0.05

Why do I have to freeze the soup first before I can eat it?

goodfoodteam

21st Jan, 2015

Hi pgib8 thanks for your question. It's absolutely fine to eat the soup without freezing it first. At the end of step 5 we advise that this is the best point to freeze it but only if you are making it ahead. If you want to eat it straight away just skip the note on freezing and head straight to step 6. Hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Polyglot

18th Oct, 2014

What type of stock should I use? vegetable?....

goodfoodteam

7th Nov, 2014

Hi there thanks for your question, vegetable or chicken stock would both work well.

vicki_mh

15th Nov, 2015

Roast the tomatoes first with olive oil, oregano and seasoning. Add a couple of bay leaves to the stock and veg. Absolutely delicious. I only sieved about 3/4 of the soup to leave some texture. Also great if you roast a couple of red peppers.

Sammyblackwell

9th Dec, 2014

Don't blend straight after cooking! I did and the top of my blender flew off and caused soupoffical (pardon the pun) burns to my face, neck and chest!

jon@jongraham.co.uk

4th Jan, 2014

Instead of using tomatoes, use a couple of cans of Chopped Tomato and a medium jar of Passata.

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